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The debut novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Son, which is now an AMC original TV series

Set in a beautiful but economically devastated Pennsylvania steel town, American Rust is a novel of the lost American dream and the desperation—as well as the acts of friendship, loyalty, and love—that arise from its loss. From local bars to trainyards to prison, it is the story of two young men, bound to the town by family, responsibility, inertia, and the beauty around them, who dream of a future beyond the factories and abandoned homes.

Left alone to care for his aging father after his mother commits suicide and his sister escapes to Yale, Isaac English longs for a life beyond his hometown. But when he finally sets out to leave for good, accompanied by his temperamental best friend, former high school football star Billy Poe, they are caught up in a terrible act of violence that changes their lives forever.

Evoking John Steinbeck’s novels of restless lives during the Great Depression, American Rust takes us into the contemporary American heartland at a moment of profound unrest and uncertainty about the future. It is a dark but lucid vision, a moving novel about the bleak realities that battle our desire for transcendence and the power of love and friendship to redeem us.

Newsweek's list of "Best. Books. Ever"A Washington Post Top Ten Book of 2009A New York Times Notable Book of 2009An Economist Best Book of 2009A Kansas City Star Top 100 book of 2009Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Best Books of 2009Idaho Statesman's Best Books of 2009

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Amazon Best of the Month, February 2009: Buell, Pennsylvania lies in ruins, a dying--if not already dead--steel town, where even the lush surrounding country seethes with concealed industrial toxins. When Isaac English and Billy Poe--a pair of high-school friends straight out of Steinbeck--embark on a starry-eyed cross-country escape to California, a violent encounter with a trio of transients leaves one dead, prying the lid off a rusted can of failed hope and small-town secrets. American Rust is Philipp Meyer's first novel, and his taut, direct prose strikes the perfect tone for this kaleidoscope of fractured dreams, elevating a book that otherwise might be relentlessly dour to the level of honest and unflinching storytelling. (Interestingly, Meyer has a fan in Patricia Cornwell, who name-checked American Rust in her latest novel, Scarpetta, even though Meyer's book hadn't been released yet.) --Jon Foro

Amazon Exclusive: Philipp Meyer on American Rust

In the late seventies, when I was five, my parents moved us to a blue-collar neighborhood in Baltimore. As was the case with most of the old cities of the northeast, Baltimore was in the throes of a serious social collapse. Any industry you could name was falling apart--steel, ship-building, textiles--not to mention the docks and the port. The middle class was evaporating. Even among the neighborhood kids, there was a sense that things were getting worse, not better.

That neighborhood was called Hampden, a place since immortalized in many of John Waters’s films. Back then, even in Baltimore’s often shoddy public schools, Hampden was not a place you wanted to admit you were from--my brother and I often lied when asked where we lived. There were police cars and ambulances on our street with some frequency, men passed out on the sidewalk. My father, a graduate student, once went outside with his pistol to check on a man whom he thought had been murdered near our house.

Even so, there was a strong community and the people who were able did their best to watch out for each other. These were good people, working people, but in the end that didn’t matter--their jobs had disappeared and they tumbled from the middle class into the ranks of what we now call the “working poor.” It was an early lesson into the way life worked for certain segments of our society.

Many years later, after a long and roundabout route to get into and eventually graduate from college, I ended up taking a job on Wall Street. I was proud of my new job, proud I’d gone from high school dropout to Cornell University graduate to Wall Street trader. Naturally, complications soon arose.

One surprising thing was that while in most of the country the closing of a factory was seen as tragic, on Wall Street it was nearly a cause for celebration. Whatever the company in question, closing an American factory caused their stock price to go up. The more jobs were outsourced, the more the company executives made on their stock options, the more investment bankers racked up multi-million dollar bonuses. Meanwhile, a short distance away, thousands of families were being devastated.

While I still have many close friends on Wall Street, after a few years there I knew it was the wrong path. I cared about people, I cared about their stories, I’d stopped caring about money. After leaving the bank I spent my time writing and working jobs in construction and as an EMT; I moved back in with my parents and lived in their basement. In 2005, I lucked into a writing scholarship at the Michener Center for Writers in Austin, Texas, where I wrote the majority of American Rust.

There are thousands of communities in which this book could have taken place, but Pittsburgh and the Monongahela Valley area, where I have many friends and family, seemed like the most natural setting. After thriving for a hundred years, helping to win our wars and build our great cities, the Mon Valley now offers a striking combination of rural beauty and industrial decay. Once the epitome of the American Dream--full of hard-working towns where you could make a name for yourself--the Valley today has the feel of a forgotten place.

This was the backdrop of the story I wanted to tell in American Rust--how events beyond our control can change the way we define our humanity. I think Americans are a tough people, but often our best doesn’t come out until we’re pushed our hardest. This is what I set out to do in the book. I wanted to examine the old American themes of the individual versus society, freedom versus determinism. I wanted to investigate what really makes us human.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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This was one of the best novels I’ve read in recent years. Its reviews were good but, perhaps because of the recent TV adaptation of the author's subsequent novel, The Son, my expectations were not too high. The novel is set in Buell, PA, a down-on-its-heels (and fictional) distant suburb of Pittsburgh. The steel industry that defined the area economy has failed and faded to rust years ago. The two main characters are Isaac English and Billy Poe, unlikely friends a couple years out of high school and unemployed. Isaac is slight and naturally brilliant, Poe is tall, athletic and instinctual but not disciplined or book-smart. Poe’s mother, her erstwhile boyfriend (the local police chief) and Isaac’s Yale-educated sister from Connecticut round out the main cast. Early on and by mischance, Isaac and Billy find themselves in a threatening situation with three drifters in an abandoned mill, one of whom they kill, almost by accident. That sets into motion what promises to be a classic tragedy. Meyers plots and tells the story with great skill and brings it tightly to conclusion.

Well written, well told. But, a downer. Not much joy in this book. The characters are interesting and the story is definitely a tragedy. Good character development--you feel the anguish of each. I liked it, but only in the way that I needed to see what happened next and how it ended. THE SON by the same author is, in my opinion, his better book. I read this one after reading THE SON. I enjoy at least a smattering of "happy" and did not find it in this book.

Philipp Meyer has written a superb novel of ordinary people, ordinary people who are desperate, trying to survive in a Pennsylvania steel town. He writes of tragedies in these lives,those who have no jobs, no opportunities and no future. His prose accurately describes the rusting steel of the towns along the Monongahela River. The rusting towns interspersed with beautiful lush trees and rivers flowing along the green grassy banks.

'American Rust' tells the story of two young men, so opposite in stature and style. One of them Issac is the genius, intelligent young man , small and looks years younger than his 20 years. Billy Poe is the strapping blond, good looking hero, football player. Both of these men were meant to make something of their lives, but circumstances changed these plans. Issac stayed home to care for his disabled father, and Billy Poe just never could get himself going to apply for that football scholarship. Issace decides after three years he has had enough and plans on leaving town. He steals four thousand dollars from his father's savings and sets out walking. Issac has talked Billy Poe into leaving with him. They stop off for a rest from the driving rain in an old mill buidling. Three homeless men find them there. A fight breaks out. At this place their lives change dramatically for them, and the people close to them. They react in fear and make a situation worse. They return home and nothing will ever be the same.

Grace, Billy's mother has lived her life for this boy. He is her life in many ways. Buddy Harris the Sheriff of the town has protected Billy most of his life because of the Sheriff's love for Grace. Lee, Issac's sister has married a wealthy man and lives in Conneticut. She has a strange marriage but is trying to hold it together. She loves her brother and feels guilt for leaving him with their father. And, Issac's father, knows he has not been a loving father to his son. But Issac took care of him and now he is alone. All of these characters are larger than life in some ways. They protect each other from the truth, run the emotional gamut of deep depression and then hope for the future. However, there is some lassitude, they can't seem to get started until they are forced to make decisions. They are all like you and me, trying to live each day the best they can. Tragedy and despair, love and hope, keeping their wits together for a better day.

This is a novel for our times. Who knew that we might all be facing such tough economic times in the year 2009. The times are changing and this novel gives us a look into our future. They are us and we are them.An extraordinary novel, an American tale told in terms of decaying, rusted towns. A moral equivalent that resonates with some of our great writers. Prose with such elegant descriptive terms that one can see the novel in front of us. A book to be remembered.

This is a good book but not a great book. It was entertaining enough to keep me reading the entire thing but not a book that I would ever entertain reading again. Meyer does a good job of developing his characters and they intertwine pretty well. But for me the plot sort of fizzles at the end as though maybe it was setting up for a sequel but I am not sure it is strong enough to support a sequel. I purchased this book based off the strength of "The Son". While it is written in a similar style it does not compare to the depth of The Son.

I really enjoyed this book. Similar to in his more recent book "The Son," Meyer tells this story from multiple first-person perspectives. There are only about 4-5 central characters, so it does not get too confusing. Every character has a piece of the truth. And the reader is able to see how each character is trying their best to do the right thing, but also how each character is justified in thinking the others have failed him or her, based on the information they have. This makes the story seem realistic, and gripping. Lastly, the reader is able to see how, again and again, tragedy could have been averted by the simplest actions, but it all comes too little too late. Meyer is almost Shakespearean in this regard. Great read. I only do not give it 5/5 because the ending seemed to come out of nowhere and leave me a bit confused, and wanting more closure.If you like realistic, bleak portrayals of good, decent people trying to deal with unfortunate situations, you will enjoy this story.

This novel was a good story, but not a great one! I did not care for the format that the author chose. Switching back and forth from one character to the next became very annoying. It is worth reading.